SUPERGIRL #6

Candor

March 2006

Written by Greg Rucka

Pencils by Ed Benes

Inks by Norm Rapmund

Cover by Ian Churchill

Synopsis

One year, one month later.... As Kal-el warns the general populace of the fake Nightwing and pretend Flamebird, Kara Zor-el receives a tattoo that looks somewhat like a religious symbol connected with Kal-el and his authority.  As she is walking home, Kara is accosted by aliens who decide to physically hurt her because she is part of Kal-el’s “pure race.”  Flamebird comes to her rescue, telling the aliens she is not the enemy.  The aliens, however, believe she is the enemy because she is Kryptonian.  Kara gets angry and starts to beat the hell out of the aliens.  Flamebird does what she can to calm her down.  She has noticed that Kara has lost her temper more and more and suggest they leave.  Kara does not want to.  She needs to find Argo, the part of Krypton that still exists.  Later, aliens are being held captive while Kal-el brainwashes them.  Flamebird and Nightwing rescue the aliens, but not before Kara’s tattoo is seen by the krypton authorities.  Kal-el destroys all evidence that the threat to Krypton are Kryptonians and then tells his associates to get their sisters , there is hunting to do.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Nightwing = Power Girl

Flamebird = Supergirl

As far removed as this series has gone from the first issues penned by Loeb, I have to give credit to Rucka for managing to find a way to connect the dots back to Loeb’s run.  I’m not sure if Loeb left behind notes on what he was planning on doing.  I’m not even sure if Rucka found a way to make the connection on his own (via Luthor’s black Kryptonite).  But finding the connection as least made this sudden and very dramatic change to Supergirl’s life at least somewhat understandable.  When DC said things would change in the One Year Later shift, they were not kidding when it came to this series.  Everything we knew about Supergirl is gone, replaced by an alien world, new super hero identity, and new friends.  And even though Power Girl is character we recognize, her presence as Flamebird is still strange and different.  The question still remains:  was it any good?  As the first issue of a new story arc with a new creative team, I liked and I can’t wait to see where it goes. 

Is it just me or is there a Nazi vibe going on with Kal-el and the purity thing.  Recast Krypton as Germany and the aliens as Jews and it feels just like it.  Does that make Nightwing and Flamebird to be England the United States?  As long as neither of them are France....

What happened to the magnetic thing that occurred whenever Supergirl and Power Girl met?  I will assume this may have been negated by the events of Infinite Crisis.  It sure seems that way since PG seems to recall she lost her entire universe. 

Kara’s tattoo has the Kryptonian word “Hope.”

What I don’t want to talk about it, but obviously am because you are reading this, is the huge continuity question surrounding Kara and Karen’s appearance in the bottle city of Kandor (which is not exactly mentioned in the book, just the solicits).  The problem is that, according to the “Up, Up and Away” story arc in the Superman titles, Supergirl was around for most of the missing year.  So, after that arc, she decided to go to Kandor?  Fine, except a lot of what Supergirl states and believes seems to come directly from Loeb’s run.  In the “Up, Up and Away” story, I get the sense that she is a different person.  Or maybe that’s me.  Whatever.  My head hurts when I think about it.

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